Gail Bowers
Adjunct Instructor of Music
/prod01/twu-cdn-pxl/media/images/music/Bowers-(400-x-500-px).png)
Academic Area: Viola
Contact
Phone: (940) 898-2500
Degrees
MM in Viola Performance, Southern Methodist University
BM in Viola Performance, Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Profile
Gail Bowers is an active performer and upper strings instructor throughout the DFW area. She began her musical studies at age five on piano, and viola four years later. A native of Indiana, Bowers studied privately with Hungarian professor Csaba Erdelyi at Butler University during her secondary education. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music from Southern Methodist University, studying with Peter Slowik and Ellen Rose of the Dallas Symphony. Other teachers and mentors of note include Stanley Konopka of the Cleveland Orchestra, Roger Chase, Ralph Fielding, and Andres Diaz.
Ms. Bowers began performing while still in high school, placing in state competitions and participating in the Indianapolis Symphony side-by-side orchestra, the Indianapolis Youth Orchestra, and professional area orchestras. During her university studies, she performed in the Oberlin in Italy summer festival abroad, as well as with the Southern Methodist Meadows Symphony in Taos, New Mexico. After graduation, Bowers was a member of the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra for 5 years, and has subbed with the Irving Symphony and Fort Smith Symphony orchestras. She is a founding member of the European Ensemble string quartet, performing since 2006 for weekly private and corporate events throughout Texas and surrounding states.
Ms. Bowers remained committed to pedagogy throughout her studies, teaching for local outreach programs and Oberlin college non-major viola students as an undergraduate. As a graduate student, Ms. Bowers began instructing privately at the secondary level in Frisco and Carrollton. In 2014, she began teaching violin and viola privately in the Flower Mound Schools of Lewisville ISD, collaborating closely with the orchestral directors, and added Northwest High School to her schedule in 2019. She has served as an All Region judge for CFBisd, Solo and Ensemble judge in Northwest ISD, and as a clinician for Frisco, McKinney, and Lewisville ISD. Ms. Bowers is in the process of becoming certified to teach orchestra at the secondary level, and is excited to begin her first year working with TWU viola students in Fall 2023.
Page last updated 11:19 AM, February 20, 2024